September 24, 2003
3 p.m.

RICHMOND, Va. - Line crews working around the clock, neighborhood by neighborhood, have restored power to 1.3 million Dominion customers in Virginia and North Carolina who lost service as a result of Hurricane Isabel.

On Wednesday, the sixth day of the restoration effort, Jimmy D. Staton, senior vice president-Operations, said, "We are well within reach of our goal of restoring power to 75 percent of our customers by Thursday. Once we have reached that milestone, we will project the last stages of the restoration effort."

Approximately 480,000 customers remain without electricity as of 2 p.m. Wednesday.

The company restoration workforce swelled to more than 11,000 Tuesday and additional crews, including teams from Duquesne Light from Pennsylvania and Consumers Energy from Michigan arrived Wednesday to assist with the effort, bringing the total restoration force to 11,159.

However, Staton said the hardest part of the restoration effort may still lie ahead as crews move deeper into particularly hard-hit neighborhoods and subdivisions in parts of Central Virginia, Tidewater and northeastern North Carolina.

"The amount of devestation we're finding in some of those areas is horrific," Staton said. "Our crews are reporting that power poles and lines are practically unrecognizable they are so mangled and twisted. Some areas are just about impenetrable.

"For those crews, this is getting down to hand-to-hand combat," Staton said.

Damage discovered during this phase of the restoration effort has led Dominion to increase its estimates of destruction to its system. The preliminary assessment completed Sunday estimated 2,311 broken utility poles and 3,899 snapped cross arms. Those numbers have been increased to at least 9,000 poles and 15,000 cross-arms and may go higher.

Staton said getting enough replacement materials has been a significant logistics challenge, but the company is succeeding in getting enough poles, crossarms, transformers and other materials to complete the work without interruption.

Excellent progress has been made in Northern Virginia, which received more moderate damage, and the outages have been reduced from about 535,000 to less than 18,000.

"As we finish up in the less hard-hit areas, we will begin to move those crews to those areas where the damage in many neighborhoods is much greater," Staton said.

To prevent accidental fires from occuring when power is restored, the company advises homeowners to leave one light on and turn off all appliances and other electrical equipment.

In addition to working in the neighborhoods, the company also is focusing on schools. About 80 percent of the 1,200 schools in the companys'service territory have power. "We are working closely with school districts to get power restored to all the schools," Staton said.

Dominion is urging those customers who have had power restored to be good neighbors and help out those still without power. Providing hot showers, use of washing machines and clothes dryers to those without power can help to ease the frustrations that accompany a prolonged outage.

Dominion also called on customers to check on elderly relatives and neighbors or others with special needs who may not have their power restored.

Dominion remains concerned about customer safety, especially from downed power lines and improper use of generators. Company officials note that unless installed professionally, generators should not be connected to the whole house electrical service. Improperly installed, the electricity could backfeed onto Dominion's power lines and injure line crews.

Report downed power lines by calling 1-888-667-3000.

Dominion is one of the nation's largest producers of energy, with a diversified and integrated energy portfolio that includes 24,000 megawatts of generation and 6.3 trillion cubic feet equivalent of proved natural gas reserves. Dominion also serves 5 million retail energy customers in nine states. For more information about Dominion, including dynamic updates on power restoration, visit the company's Web site at www.dom.com.

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